I am so glad I learned how to tell if fabric is off grain and how to pull it back. Have had to do it many times. I usually buy an extra 1/4 to 1/3 yard of woven fabric in case it's off.

My mom (the home ec teacher) taught us to always watch as the clerk cuts the fabric, for flaws or signs of twisting. It seems to be less common these days...or maybe it's because I'm buying quilting fabric, at at $11 a yard, the manufacturers know that the consumer is NOT going to put up with getting twisted fabric. It can be prevented...but in the cheaper fabrics, they just assume that price is the consideration, and consumers will be willing to buy a little more 'just in case' to be able to get the whole piece at less.

And when I started working with it and ripped it, I thought DH was going to levitate right through the ceiling. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?"

LOL! When I was in my first year of college, my mother was going to make me a coat. She'd seen this teal blue cordoroy that wasn't cut in wales, but in a sort of hexagon design, and thought that would be good. I told her I wanted camel's-hair. So we went to Cy Rudnick's (if you're from Kansas City, you know Cy) and bought camel's-hair and satin lining, and I don't remember how much it cost, but it was pricey. Mom set up her cutting table, and an hour or so later, I wandered in to see how it was going. She was still staring at the fabric, scissors in hand. She explained that she just couldn't cut into that pricey fabric, thinking about how she could ruin it if the pattern didn't fit me right. She asked me what I'd really thought about the cordoroy, if I'd wear a coat made out of it, too. I said sure. So she went and bought the cordoroy and quilted cotton lining, and made me a car-coat length coat to test the pattern, before cutting out the camel's-hair.The funny part? The teal cordoroy coat was a guy magnet. I have had so many men ask to touch it. I think it's a combination of the unusual texture and the color. Poor men, they have so few voluptuous fabrics they can wear! And it really is nice to pet. I've never seen anything like it, in the 40+ years since then. I still have it (unfortunately, it's a bit too small for me to wear, but I have hopes!). The camel's-hair coat got hit by moths.

The funny part? The teal cordoroy coat was a guy magnet. I have had so many men ask to touch it. I think it's a combination of the unusual texture and the color. Poor men, they have so few voluptuous fabrics they can wear!

I think that's a big draw for the SCA. Clothes from other eras are much more lush and luxury fabrics aren't reserved exclusively for women. A manly man can wear this:

only in midnight blue velveteen, and not be thought gay.

Logged

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Common sense is not a gift, but a curse. Because thenyou have to deal with all the people who don't have it. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The funny part? The teal cordoroy coat was a guy magnet. I have had so many men ask to touch it. I think it's a combination of the unusual texture and the color. Poor men, they have so few voluptuous fabrics they can wear!

I think that's a big draw for the SCA. Clothes from other eras are much more lush and luxury fabrics aren't reserved exclusively for women. A manly man can wear this:

only in midnight blue velveteen, and not be thought gay.

My Laurel made a salmon pink houppelande for a knight once. She asked if he was sure he wanted pink, and he pointed out it wasn't candy cotton pink, it was a manly pink. And yes, whenever I hear parents worrying about their sons wanting to have Disney Princess stuff, I always think, 'Make him a PRINCE costume, for pity's sake! He wants the shiny, slippery, plushy fabrics, he doesn't REALLY want to be Belle.'

The funny part? The teal cordoroy coat was a guy magnet. I have had so many men ask to touch it. I think it's a combination of the unusual texture and the color. Poor men, they have so few voluptuous fabrics they can wear!

I think that's a big draw for the SCA. Clothes from other eras are much more lush and luxury fabrics aren't reserved exclusively for women. A manly man can wear this:

only in midnight blue velveteen, and not be thought gay.

My Laurel made a salmon pink houppelande for a knight once. She asked if he was sure he wanted pink, and he pointed out it wasn't candy cotton pink, it was a manly pink. And yes, whenever I hear parents worrying about their sons wanting to have Disney Princess stuff, I always think, 'Make him a PRINCE costume, for pity's sake! He wants the shiny, slippery, plushy fabrics, he doesn't REALLY want to be Belle.'

And just think how many of those princesses will want to have their photo taken with the prince (not many princes around). There are lots of super heroes? Well, princes get bright colored fabrics and they get SWORDS, too. Sleeping Beauty's prince got a dragon to kill - too bad most of them were more walk on parts - he had lines and action, too!

My Laurel made a salmon pink houppelande for a knight once. She asked if he was sure he wanted pink, and he pointed out it wasn't candy cotton pink, it was a manly pink. And yes, whenever I hear parents worrying about their sons wanting to have Disney Princess stuff, I always think, 'Make him a PRINCE costume, for pity's sake! He wants the shiny, slippery, plushy fabrics, he doesn't REALLY want to be Belle.'

A friend of mine is having issues with this - her son really relly REALLY wants to be a princess for Halloween. He actually owns some dress-up dresses, now, but her agreement with him is that he not wear them out of the house because of some of the nasty comments they get. (He really really wanted to wear dresses to school, too, but she put her foot down on that one.) I may suggest to her that she look into making him a bright, silky, flowy, prince costume instead :-)

1. We were in a local chain TexMex place. Big family meal. I complain my coke tastes funny. I'm ignored. I keep complaining. Finally my Mimmi takes a sip - about the same time the guy at the next table complains his rum and coke has no kick. Mr. Sam (the waiter) and Mary Neil (the owner) apologize figure out the Bartenders were making the drinks for both tables and there was a mix up. They changed policies so that all "plain" sodas and virgin drinks had white napkins and all mixed drinks with soda or could be mistaken for a "kids drink" had red napkins. (Mary Neil told Dad -they were did business together)

2. National chain franchise. I think I was underaged again (I've been legal 3 times due to changing laws). But my cousins were in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. We ordered Virgin Daiquiris. I run to the restroom come out the drinks and appetizer is on the table. The kids whisper they made a mistake these taste like Daddy's and Mommy's not ours. The waitress bartender, and Manager refuse to fix the problem. Our drinks are fine - until some collage girls complain about getting our virgin drinks. Then they remade their drinks. I paid for the served food but only the price of our virgin drinks, (wasn't trusting them not to tamper with our food) left - and called Dad and asked how to report them to the TABC. Dad called the agent in charge of the Galleria area - that place was under a microscope till they got busted serving underaged patrons. (Just hope they weren't 7 and 10 like my cousins). Never went back - they closed but so did a bunch of restaurants around there.

Not a bad customer service story, but your post reminded me of this:

Hawaii. 1987. My mother was treating my then-fiance and me to dinner on our last night there. I love pina coladas, but I was avoiding alcohol for medical reasons at the time. I ordered a virgin pina colada, and my mom ordered a regular one. I was a bit paranoid about the alcohol, so I asked the server if she was absolutely, positively sure I'd gotten the virgin one.

She said yes, and got a little giggly about not wanting to tell me *why* she was sure. Eventually she explained. The drinks came with two skinny little straws. In the spiked drink, the straws were spread apart in a V. In the virgin drink, they were straight up and together!

Topic: In 2003 I moved to a place in the country that was about 700 feet from the road. I called to arrange cable service. The tech arrived and explained that they couldn't hook me up because I was too far from the road. I showed him the box in the field that my landlords installed, that had all the connection stuff in it, and the cable hanging in the basement, ready to be connected upstairs. Nope. "Not serviceable."

A couple of weeks later my landlord shows up with some connectors from Radio Shack and hooks me up in about 15 minutes. Shortly afterward, I get a phone call from the cable company asking if my recent service call was satisfactory (well, no), then a very official-looking letter explaining why I'm "not serviceable" but if I got my neighbors together and we petitioned for service, they might be able to help.

A few months after that, I find one of those hanging cards on my doorknob telling me I have an illegal cable connection. Which I did, but I called the company and played dumb ... "Oh, dear, my landlords set this up; I assumed the bills were coming to them! Go ahead and set up an account for me." They did.

But geez, Time Warner, you're in the communications business. Why don't you actually communicate with each other?

(For the record, that's the only time I've ever had a problem with Time Warner. I've had to call them for outages several times since then, and I always get prompt attention.)

I grew up eating Sonny's BBQ. Love their food. When I moved back to their territory (and had one only 5 minutes from the house) I was thrilled! Except that the to-go from this place is always awful! Last straw was last night. Get there, the speaker's not working, so I pull around as directed. I was there for ten minutes, calling "Hello? Hello?" before a dishwasher, leaving for the day, came over, saw I was still waiting, and bellowed into the window for service. After watching the manager argue with a server about hours, she finally took my order. The food was delivered promptly, and I left. I get home (again, five minutes from the restaurant) and the fries are cold and tough, the garlic bread is cold and tough, the pulled pork is greasy and inedible, and the ribs are half burnt. Of course, this is the second time we've had an issue with them - last time, they just sort of half heartedly offered a replacement of *just the meat* the next day (they closed the drive through and stopped taking calls before I could call them that time, as I'd gotten there right before the drive through closed, although the restaurant was still open for an hour).

I'm calling corporate to let them know this time. It's a shame - I love their food, when it's done right. It's just not been done right every time I've been in the last year!

Reading the cable stories reminded me of why I wonít ever use Direct TV again. (Warning: this is long)I was having problem with my satellite signal going out whenever the wind picked up. It finally went out and did not come back, I called Direct TV and they sent out a technician.

I had a two story house, the satellite dish was at the very top of the house, and it caught the wind like a sail. As it turned out, the technician told me the dish should have been anchored with 6 6inch bolts, but it only had 4 4inch bolts, so it had been blown out of alignment. He realigned the dish, secured it with the 6 6inch bolts and all was good.

I called Direct TV and told them I believed I should not be charged for the service call since the problem was a result of an improper installation. The service rep refused to help so I asked for a supervisor, the supervisor refused to credit the account as well. She kept telling me I should have purchased a protection plan which meant a service call was only 20.00I explained to her I did not believe in the protection plans since they cost 6.00 a month so 72.00 a year. That plus the 20.00 I would pay for a service call, meant the first service call in a year would actually cost me 92.00, as opposed to the 80.00 I had to pay out of pocket.

I told her I did not have a problem paying the 80.00 under normal circumstances, but since my outage was a result of the installation tech not doing his job properly, I did not believe I should have to pay for the service call:

Sup: Sir, if you had purchased our protection plan you would only have had to pay 20.00

Me: Iíve explained why I do not believe your protection plan is a good deal. Your installation technician did a poor job installing my dish, it caused an outage, and I donít think I should have to pay for that.

Sup: Sir you donít know the installation tech did a poor job. The technician that fixed your problem should not have commented on the job the install tech did. Different techs have different methods for installing dishes, so what the first tech did was not wrong.

Me: Do you not have standards for installing a satellite dish?

Sup: yes

Me: then I would like a copy of your standards to see if it was done correctly.

Sup: Sir, this is nothing wrong with what he did, I have a dish on my house installed the same way and I donít have any problems with it (yes she really said this)

Me: so if different techs have different methods for installing satellite dishes, if one tech feels one 8 inch bolt is all that is needed to install a dish, from what youíre telling me, this would be acceptable.

Sup: Sir there was nothing wrong with your installation and you are not going to get a credit.

Me: I can see we are going around in circles. Iím not going to continue arguing. I have a year left on my contract, I donít want to pay an early termination fee, but when my contract is up, I will cancel.

Sup: Sir that is your right.

Me: well good by

I cancel a year later, when I call to cancel, now they try to talk me out of it:

Me: Iíd like to cancel

Rep: Can I ask why?

Me: (I explain why Iím cancelling)

Rep: well sir, I see itís been over a year since youíve called concerning service.

Me: I told the supervisor the last time I called I would be cancelling, she didnít care. Was I supposed to call every two months, just to let you know I hadnít changed my mind and I was still going to cancel when my contract was up?

Rep: Sir we have upgraded our service, we have better training for our technicians and I promise you will be very happy with our level of service.

Me: you had your chance last year when I spoke with a supervisor, maybe someone should have a talk with her concerning customer retention, I said I was going to cancel, and now thatís what Iím doing.

Rep: Well, if you want to just live in the past, I guess thereís nothing I can do.

Me: No, there wasnít, and with that last comment, youíve definitely put the nail in the coffin. Weíre done here.

The Thursday before Labor Day (so about Aug. 29), I called to report my debit card missing and probably eaten by an ATM. I assumed someone was ordering a new one ASAP. I know it takes 10-14 business days to get the new one, so I didn't ask again until I hadn't received the card by Sept. 16.

They had no record of my call, nor of ordering me one.

This time I was speaking with someone from my own branch, not corporate, so I assumed all was well and asked them to expedite the new card.

Today, Sept. 23, a week later, I happen to be in the branch and ask about the new card. I knew it hasn't been 7 days even, but they could track it.

They had no record of my call, nor of ordering me a new one! And this was with the person I spoke to standing right there .

So here we go again. I had them order the new one while I stood there. We'll see if it comes in 7-14 business days (no, they wouldn't hustle it).

At least I can cash checks, and this has forced me to go on an all-cash budget, which is a good thing. So I'm actually more amused than cross by now.

We have always had cable for our television channels - never satellite. We did have DSL on our phone line for a while - then switched to cable (sorry - almost triple the speed for the same price makes a huge difference with students in the household and someone doing telecommuting at night for extra hours).

That was Cox in Georgia - then we moved to Texas and got RoadRunner - who sold/traded markets with Comcast about two years after we got here, so we become Comcast customers because that's who owns our location....

And no matter how many times they tick us off - from neighbors & other students grousing to VorSon about the way their satellite goes away if a butterfly breezes past the satellite dish at their house (slight exaggeration - maybe a dozen butterflies going by at the same time) - we will be staying with Comcast for the higher speed, slightly lower price (especially if you call and mention it every time the service goes out so they have to come fix it - we pay for the service because cancelling it would cost almost as much as six months of service - if we do have to have any repairs done in one year - it is cheaper to have paid than not) and relative reliability. Which is partly based on VorSon's fellow students staying at the school to do their work on the school's network....

The Thursday before Labor Day (so about Aug. 29), I called to report my debit card missing and probably eaten by an ATM. I assumed someone was ordering a new one ASAP. I know it takes 10-14 business days to get the new one, so I didn't ask again until I hadn't received the card by Sept. 16.

They had no record of my call, nor of ordering me one.

This time I was speaking with someone from my own branch, not corporate, so I assumed all was well and asked them to expedite the new card.

Today, Sept. 23, a week later, I happen to be in the branch and ask about the new card. I knew it hasn't been 7 days even, but they could track it.

They had no record of my call, nor of ordering me a new one! And this was with the person I spoke to standing right there .

So here we go again. I had them order the new one while I stood there. We'll see if it comes in 7-14 business days (no, they wouldn't hustle it).

At least I can cash checks, and this has forced me to go on an all-cash budget, which is a good thing. So I'm actually more amused than cross by now.

I had this happen to me at my credit union. Luckily, they charge a $5 new card fee, so when I didn't see it after a couple of days I called back.